Chapter Nine
Death by a Thousand Cuts...From a Boomerang Blade
Ergog.
Of course an outlandish character like him would have a name like that.
“I will not ask you again,” the hunter said. His hood was still pulled low over his head, and from where he stood, Henry couldn’t see much of his eyes—or at least the part of his face where eyes should be. “I’ve come for the witch. Stand aside, or you will share her fate.”
Henry had been threatened more times than he could count, but something about the way the eyeless hunter said those words sent a light shudder down his spine.
Between everything Nora had told him about the hunter and the fact that he’d almost gotten skewered by one of those blades, every cell in his body wanted him to turn and make a run for it.
“No,” he said.
If Ergog was taken aback by his response, he didn’t show it.
It was hard to read expressions when the other person had no eyes, anyway.
But Henry saw the hunter’s grip tighten on his blades.
The nearby crowd had given them a wide berth, murmurs and gasps reaching Henry’s ears, but the rest of the people at the fair seemed completely unaware of what was going on.
Music and excited whoops filled the air in the distance.
Behind him, Nora was silent. He could practically feel the terror radiating off her.
Henry’s jaw clenched. He could easily step aside and let this hunter have her.
She wasn’t his problem—at least, she didn’t have to be.
And considering he wasn’t even certain of her innocence, the smart thing to do would be to wash his hands of her at the first opportunity.
Instead, he attacked.
His arm moved even before he realized he’d moved it, arcing through the air and striking Ergog in the jaw. The hunter staggered backward with a grunt. Before he could recover, Henry struck again, this time hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground.
Cries and gasps erupted around them as the hunter picked himself up.
Henry glanced for a second over his shoulder at Nora; her eyes were still wide, and she was frozen in place, staring between him and Ergog.
Henry’s chest heaved. If there had been a chance of him walking away from all of this, it was gone. He was fully involved now.
“You should have taken my advice,” he heard the hunter say. Ergog took a step closer. “Instead, you have sealed your fate.”
Henry was no fool. From everything he knew about Ergog, it was clear he couldn’t fight the hunter on his own.
Especially in human form. But he couldn’t afford to shift, not with a crowd present.
The hunter alone was drawing enough human attention to the supernatural.
Seeing Henry shift into a dragon or Nora use her magic would only compound their problems.
His only option was to strike hard and fast and hope to buy himself enough time to think of some other way to protect her.
Ergog lunged suddenly, and in the split second before he swung his blades, Henry realized that giving the hunter a chance to recover had been a dumb move.
He was fast, impossibly fast, and if Henry hadn’t instinctively lurched backward, he would’ve been a goner.
The blade sliced the air just centimeters before his eyes.
Quickly regaining his balance, Henry ducked again, dodging the hunter’s next attack, and aimed for his legs, knocking him to the ground a second time.
His heart pounded in his chest, his mind racing, trying to come up with a plan, a new move.
He needed to strike harder and faster, as much as he could without giving the hunter time to react.
But even that wouldn’t be enough. He couldn’t fight Ergog forever. Not like this.
Ergog rolled before he could launch another strike, and Henry’s foot struck the grass.
There was a flash of silver, and a second later, pain flared in his thigh.
With a cry, he staggered backward, clutching his leg where the hunter had cut him.
Blood trickled between his fingers. The injury didn’t seem to be deep, but it stung. A lot.
The hunter got to his feet. Henry thought he saw his lips curve into a smile. How was the man even fighting? He didn’t have eyes, and without any magic to trace, he shouldn’t be able to detect anything, right? A blind man shouldn’t be able to move so quickly, so precisely.
“Get to my truck!” Henry bellowed over his shoulder. “I’ll meet you there.”
There was no reply from Nora, but he heard her pant as she took off, and knew she’d understood him. Putting as much distance between her and the hunter as he could was a great start. But now he needed to hold Ergog off long enough for them to get away.
“There’s no escaping me,” the hunter spat, leveling one of his blades at him. “I’ve been hunting for longer than you’ve breathed.”
Henry shifted his gaze momentarily to the crowd. More people had gathered, observing the commotion. It wouldn’t be long before the authorities arrived to see what was going on. He needed to act, and fast.
Ergog acted first. The hunter hurled one of his blades at Henry, who promptly dodged it. It took Henry a split second to realize he’d made another mistake, but by then the blade had reversed its trajectory, slicing him in the shoulder before zipping back into its owner’s palm.
“Fuck,” he muttered. Another surface wound. It wasn’t enough to incapacitate him, but how much more could he possibly take?
Death by a thousand cuts...from a boomerang blade, said a voice drily in his head. Only nine hundred and ninety-eight to go.
Ergog charged at him once more, but this time, Henry was quicker to react.
He sidestepped the hunter, grabbing him by the middle and tackling him to the ground.
He shot instantly to his feet, scrambling as fast as he could away from the scene, and had burst through the crowd before the hunter even got to his feet.
A few people gasped and cried out as he pushed past them, but he paid them no notice.
Ergog was after him, not them. And none of them would possibly be foolish enough to stand in his way.
He raced through the park, ducking between several tents until he was out in the street.
Then, without pausing to catch his breath, he headed for the spot where he’d parked his truck.
Thank goodness Nora was already waiting for him there.
He unlocked the truck and they climbed inside, Henry pulling the vehicle into the road.
Nora didn’t even bother asking him whether he’d stopped the hunter.
From the way she kept glancing toward the wing mirror, he could tell she already knew the answer.
He rounded the corner, checking to make sure Ergog wasn’t following them. No sign of the hunter. Henry sighed, keeping his foot on the gas.
“Where are we going?” Nora asked after a minute of silence.
“The only place I can think of in this town,” he replied. “Green Sanctuary.”
It wouldn’t necessarily keep Ergog away, and the last thing he needed was to rope Cal and Melissa into his problems if he could avoid it, but right now, heading back to the sanctuary was the only thing that made sense.
“I could portal us there,” she suggested. “Make it harder for him to track us or—”
“No.” His jaw clenched. “No magic. That’s precisely how he tracks you. It’s what brought him back to the fair. You can’t use your magic.”
He cursed under his breath, speeding past a red light.
***
For what must have been the fortieth time, Nora glanced in the wing mirror, expecting to see Ergog racing after the truck, but there was no sign of him. They’d lost him. Or had they? When it came to the hunter, one couldn’t afford to be too relaxed. She sank back in the passenger seat.
Next to her, Henry was driving at top speed, careening through the streets with surprising expertise.
His jaw was clenched, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
Just minutes ago, she’d been beyond certain he would step aside as Ergog had instructed and let the hunter kill her.
He’d had every reason to. Instead, he’d attacked Ergog. It was insane, dangerous—stupid, even.
But looking at him, she felt a swell of gratitude. More than once today, she would’ve died if not for him.
“Thank you,” she said.
If he’d heard her, he didn’t show it. He steered the truck through the streets for a few minutes longer before taking his foot off the gas.
By the time they arrived at the sanctuary, Nora was still rattled.
Henry didn’t head straight for the house, but instead guided the truck in the opposite direction, driving across the grassy plain toward the dense woods.
He brought the vehicle to a stop at the fence, just under the canopy of a few nearby trees.
It took Nora a second to see why: they were mostly hidden in the shade, out of sight of anyone who came onto the property.
They were safe.
For now.
“Thank you,” Nora said again. She felt like she’d said those words a lot of times today. Not enough times, it seemed. How many more times was he going to save her life?
Henry said nothing, simply staring through the windshield. The seconds ticked by in uncomfortable silence.
“This is all my fault,” she finally heard him say.
When he looked at her, his expression was stormy. Nora’s breath caught in her throat.
“Henry, I—”
“I could have been having a regular boring day,” he said, cutting her short. “I could still be working at the fair, trying to make five grand. Instead, I’m running from a man that managed to hurt me even without eyes, all because I decided to protect a hybrid.”
Something about the way he spat out that last word made Nora’s gut clench. She pressed her lips together for a second, thinking of an acceptable response.
“You do have a thing against hybrids,” she said. “You said you don’t see me as a monster, but you clearly do.”
She saw his jaw tighten. There was more silence, and this time she doubted he would speak again. She gazed out the window, across the plain, at the big white house. It looked even more peaceful here. A life here, in Sylva, was one she could get used to. Assuming she managed to survive Ergog.
And assuming Henry even wanted anything to do with her afterward.
“My ex-girlfriend was a hybrid.”
He could have fought a thousand men to the death with his bare hands and it wouldn’t have shocked her as much as those words did. Nora practically spun in her seat, blinking at him in surprise.
“Wh-what?” she spluttered.
“Her name was Carmen,” he went on. “We met over a decade ago. She was a bit like you, a hybrid. Only she was part-witch and part-vampire.”
“You keep speaking about her in past tense.” Nora tried to hide the mild discomfort that suddenly swept over her. “She’s not...she’s not dead, is she?”
He shot her a funny look. “I have no idea. I haven’t seen her since the night she almost killed me.
” When Nora simply gaped at him, he explained: “We were together for a while before she did it. I trusted her. And she took advantage of that, tried to steal my shifting ability and make herself something more, something stronger. Fortunately, the spell backfired and I survived. She ran off. Haven’t seen her since. ”
A pained expression crossed his face then, as if it physically hurt him to even think about it.
Or maybe it was the fact that his shoulder and thigh were injured.
He didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, but the sight of his ripped, bloodstained clothes sent a shudder of horror through Nora.
She resisted the urge to try to heal him with a spell.
Another hybrid. His words repeated themselves in her mind. His ex had tried to kill him and steal his very essence. No wonder he didn’t seem to trust her. It was bad enough that Nora was a hybrid, but the thought that she’d killed anyone had done the exact opposite of helping her case.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said, choosing her words as carefully as possible. “That was...it was terrible. But I want you to know that I’m not like her. I’d never hurt anyone—at least, not on purpose. I certainly wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“So what happened, exactly?” He’d torn his gaze away from her now, staring out the windshield. “How’d the witch end up dead? I want to hear everything. Every last detail. Everything you remember.”
“There isn’t very much I remember,” she admitted. But she began narrating, anyway.